Show & Tell - Cake and Cookies

This is my first foray into Mel's Show and Tell.

Those of you who know me IRL, know that I am a baker, probably first and foremost, over a cook. I can do both and enjoy both, but I think baking is my first love. It started back when I was six or seven and received an Easy Bake Oven for my birthday. I loved that toy....and my parents were so good about eating my creations. I have since expanded my repertoire and no longer rely on the heat of a light bulb to bake cakes, cookies or the like.

So, I started a cake decorating class with the local Arts/Craft store last week. Class one was really the introduction, we didn't do anything, but class 2 (of 4) was this week. We learned basic piping skills, how to make a border, stars, writing, and then had to apply what we learned to a cake. We have homework each week which involves bringing an iced cake to class onto which we apply the week's decorations. V likes this course. Who wouldn't? We have cake every week in the house. :)

This is what we made last Friday. Ignore the weird cracking effect. I had a minor casualty at the front door when I got home from class. Needless to say it hasn't affected the taste. :)




This past Wednesday I also did a one night Cookie class. I've always wanted to work with fondant and such, and had a great time "playing". Here are the fruits of my labour.



I have some baking to do for the upcoming Bar Mitzvah in Chicago in two weeks, so I'm hoping to be able to make a special cookie for my nephew. If I am able to pull it off, I'll post a picture.

Go check out the rest of the class at Mel's blog.

A Good Cause

Sorry I've been quiet for the last few weeks. There isn't much going on.

I did want to post about something that is near and dear to my heart and ask for your support, if you can. As you may recall, my oldest and closest friend, lost her battle with breast cancer in May, 2007. My mother has also battled cancer in various forms as has V's grandmother.

Patti and I are building a team to participate in the Canadian Cancer Society's Relay for Life on June 19th. The Relay for Life is a 12 hour overnight event where teams of 10 walk, run or stroll around a track. It's an opportunity to celebrate survival, and to remember and honour friends and loved ones.

I have pledged $20 and I am challenging everyone to meet or beat my pledge. You can also purchase luminaries which are candles that are placed in special bags that bear the names of cancer survivors and loved ones who have lost their battle with cancer and you can honour/remember your loved one. At each Relay For Life event, the luminaries are lit during a moving ceremony at dusk.

Please visit my personal page to make a pledge, buy a luminary, join the team or just get more information.

If you have any questions, please just shoot me an email.

Thank you.

Dreams

This isn't the hopes and dreams post that you may have been expecting. Yes, we do have the hope and dream of one day adding to our family. And I haven't given up on that dream yet...although I have to admit there are days when I really wonder if it will happen and why it hasn't yet. This is about sleep dreams, the ones that you wake up and can't remember enough about what it was about to tell someone, but you have enough of a recollection to know there must be a reason for the dream.

I believe I dream most nights, and I usually can remember what they are about, especially when they are disturbing and scary. Those are the kinds you don't want to fall back to sleep because you're afraid the dream will pick up where it left off. However, the dreams I've had off and on over the last several weeks have all had a distinct theme. In them, I am pregnant. I never see myself (which I have had happened in dreams), and I don't remember who else may appear in the dream. But I do know that our clinic has played a role in getting us where we are today. There is talk of IVF. And I am never newly pregnant, nor am I ever at the stage where we're ready to deliver. It's always midway. And when I wake up I don't really remember anything except that in this dream I was pregnant.

As I've told V, and those who know me IRL (plus I've probably written it in older posts), the next cycle whenever it may be, is never far from my mind, and I probably think about it almost every day. Because we do have those last embryos on ice right now, and we're hoping to be able to do the FET in June or July (I know it keeps getting later), I do think about the cycle. Perhaps it's in my sub-conscious and that's why it is appearing in dreams. However, over the last few years as we really got involved in the cycles, I never had dreams like this. Why now?

Unfortunately, I would say I'm more of a pessimist than an optimist when it comes to our achieving our dream. You all know that there is nothing I want more than to see our dream come true. My three year blogaversary is coming up in two weeks....but we've been trying for five years. In those five years we've done 7 IUIs both with clomid and with injectibles, donor egg #1 IVF and FET, and donor egg #2 IVF and FET and with those 11 attempts, we've had one BFP on the fresh cycle with donor #2. Our final FET is with the last embryos from donor #2.

I want to believe that the dreams I'm having are some sort of door into the future letting me know that we may just be able to achieve our goal, and the by hoping, wishing and praying the final FET will be golden.